LOSING (LP)

Vinyl LP pressing, includes digital download. While BullyAEs 2013 debut Feels Like tumbled headlong into the precarious nature of Alicia BognannoAEs young adult life, its follow-up Losing is their first for Sub Pop (which in many ways feels like their spiritual home; BullyAEs sound is an outgrowth of the bands the label championed in the late ae80s and ae90s). Losing is a document of the complexity of growth: navigating breakups with sensitivity, learning not to flee from your troubles but to face them down no matter how messy they may be (oWell, this isnAEt the summer I wanted,o she muses on oBlame,o before admitting that sheAEs trying to ocut down on booze and youo). Written as the group slowed down from touring constantly and Bognanno attempted to adjust to how different a home schedule is from a road schedule, her songwriting has matured from the quick one-two punches of Feels Like to tracks that contemplate the necessity of space in both song structure and emotion. BognannoAEs gruff yet dynamic voice is allowed to bloom, and it has a tenderness and openness to it here thatAEs new. There are multiple layers of wistfulness and care to her delivery of lines like oIt just takes one disagreement for you to remember the one time I fucked up,o from oSpiral,o turning songs that could be one-dimensional kiss-offs into warm and complex expressions of regret.